"To Heel?" KEK

The White House's petty dig at MBS shows Biden is serious about bringing Saudi Arabia to heel

The White House effectively downgraded Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's status in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.

Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said the Biden administration will "recalibrate" how it treats the kingdom, and started by redefining President Joe Biden's opposite number.

"The president's counterpart is King Salman," Psaki said.

Since becoming president on January 20, Biden has called many world leaders, but the White House said on Saturday that Biden had no plans to call Crown Prince Mohammed, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia known as MBS.

Demoting MBS is a pedantic, yet significant step that shows Biden means business.

MBS, 35, has near-total control over how Saudi Arabia is run, and his 85-year-old father King Salman, who is infirm and underwent gall bladder surgery last summer, is absent from day-to-day affairs.

The reclassification indicates that the Biden administration is not keen to give MBS the time of day given his history sanctioning human-rights abuses.

Throughout the final quarter of Donald Trump's presidency, Biden promised to take a hard line on Saudi Arabia, saying he would rip up the "dangerous blank check" that Trump had written for the Saudis and that he would make Saudi Arabia "the pariah that they are."

As president, Trump declined to criticize MBS for ordering the murder of the Washington Post writer Jamal Khashoggi, and neglected to try to end US involvement in the Saudi-led war in Yemen.

Throughout the Trump presidency, MBS also formed a close bond with Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and senior advisor.

MBS's official titles are deputy prime minister and defense minister, meaning that, instead of Biden, his new opposite number is likely Lloyd Austin, the US defense secretary, Bloomberg reported.

But the move to ignore MBS is risky, given how much power he wields in Saudi Arabia. It is likely that the US will need to engage with him if it wants to achieve progress on issues inside the kingdom.

King Salman, who ascended the throne in 2015, gave up control of daily affairs to MBS in 2017, shunting aside the incumbent heir-apparent Mohammed bin Nayef.

MBS detained bin Nayef in 2020 following a crackdown on royal corruption and threats to his rule.

The detention of activists and opponents has been a key pillar of the Biden administration's critique of MBS.

On February 6, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken told his Saudi counterpart that "elevating human rights issues and ending the war in Yemen" were among the "key priorities of the new administration," according to State Department spokesman Ned Price.

The approach appears to be working. In the fortnight since, Saudi Arabia has released a number of detained activists, including Loujain al-Hathloul, Bader al-Ibrahim, and Salah al-Haidar.

In Tuesday's press conference, Psaki went on to say that Biden and King Salman will likely speak by phone soon.

"I expect at an appropriate time he [Biden] will have a conversation with him. I don't have a prediction on the timeline for that," she said.

However, Biden could find himself speaking to MBS sooner than expected. It is widely known that King Salman is unwell, and MBS is first in line to the Saudi throne.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/white-houses-petty-dig-mbs-112733780.html

Hong Kong tycoon Jimmy Lai arrested again while in jail, papers say

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Jailed Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai has been arrested again, on suspicion of assisting one of 12 fugitives China captured at sea last year, his Apple Daily tabloid and Oriental Daily said on Wednesday, without citing a source.

Lai, detained while awaiting a bail hearing on Thursday, has been charged with colluding with foreign forces under a sweeping national security law that Beijing imposed on Hong Kong last year.

The fugitives could face potential charges in Hong Kong over mass anti-government protests in 2019, with Andy Li, whom the papers identified as the person Lai was suspected of helping, being investigated for suspected national security crimes.

Neither newspaper gave further details. It was unclear if the national security legislation extends to the assistance Lai is suspected to have given Li.

Police did not immediately respond to a request to comment.

The Chinese coast guard captured the 12 fugitives in August as they tried to flee Hong Kong in a boat believed to be bound for Taiwan. All were held virtually incommunicado in a mainland China prison until a trial late in December.

Ten were jailed for terms ranging from seven months to three years for illegally crossing the border or organising the crossing, while two minors were sent back to Hong Kong.

Lai was already the most high-profile person to be charged under the new security law, for statements made on July 30 and Aug. 18, in which prosecutors say he requested foreign interference in Hong Kong's affairs.

He was arrested in an August raid by about 200 police officers on the newsroom of his Apple Daily, known for its feisty and critical coverage of China and Hong Kong.

Beijing imposed the new law on the former British colony last June, after months of pro-democracy protests, to target anything China that considers subversion, secession, terrorism or collusion with foreign forces.

Punishment under the law can range up to life in prison.

Critics say it is aimed at crushing dissent and erodes freedoms in the semi-autonomous financial hub. Supporters say it restores stability after months of unrest.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/hong-kong-tycoon-jimmy-lai-080154918.html

>>12966598

If it's gonna be "Biblical" 40 days and 40 nights from Jan 20, ends on March 1st

KEK

Satellite images show China emptying military camps at border flashpoint with India

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - China has dismantled dozens of structures and moved vehicles to empty out entire camps along a disputed Himalayan border, where Indian and Chinese troops have been locked in a face-off since last summer, satellite images released on Wednesday show.

The nuclear-armed neighbours last week announced a plan to pull back troops, tanks and other equipment from the banks of Pangong Tso, a glacial lake in the Ladakh region, that became a flashpoint in the prolonged border dispute.

Satellite imagery of some areas on the northern bank of Pangong Tso from Tuesday supplied by Maxar Technologies show that multiple Chinese military camps, which could be seen there in late January, have been removed.

"Similar action is happening from our side also," an Indian official in New Delhi, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.

India's defence minister Rajnath Singh told parliament that both sides had agreed to pull back troops in "a phased, coordinated and verified manner" around Pangong Tso, after which military commanders would discuss ending the standoff in other parts of the Ladakh frontier.

Tensions began rising along the high-altitude border in April, when India accused Chinese troops of intruding into its side of the Line of Actual Control, the de facto border. China denied the allegation, saying it was operating in its own area.

But the confrontation spiralled in June when 20 Indian soldiers and an undisclosed number of Chinese troops were killed during hand-to-hand clashes in Ladakh's Galwan region - the first such casualties along the 3,500 km (2,200 mile) long border in decades.

Despite several subsequent rounds of diplomatic and military talks, India and China had been unable to settle on an agreement until February, making the ongoing first phase of the withdrawal critical.

"What is happening now is that wherever troops, especially north and south of Pangong Tso, were in eyeball-to-eyeball contact, they have taken a step back to reduce tensions and pave way for further de-escalation," the Indian official said.

Videos and images released by the Indian army earlier this week also showed Chinese troops dismantling bunkers and tents, and tanks, soldier and vehicles moving out as part of the disengagement process.

But some experts have cautioned that current withdrawal is only the first step in a potentially long-drawn out process.

"It is still nowhere near a full disengagement or an agreement on what we should be doing," India's former National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon told The Wire news outlet.

"We need much more than just disengagement. We need a return to the positions before April last year."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/satellite-images-show-china-emptying-085019447.html

>>12967363

He must use the Common Core Covid model.

Another US Navy destroyer challenged China in the South China Sea by sailing past contested islands without asking permission

The US Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Russell sailed through the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea on Wednesday, challenging China's demands that foreign military vessels ask for permission before sailing through the area, the Navy said.

The Spratly Islands are contested territories in the South China Sea. China, which claims almost all of the 1.3 million-square-mile waterway, has built up its military presence in this area, constructing fortified outposts on artificial reefs.

The Spratlys are also claimed by Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei, and the Philippines, some of which put restrictions on the operations of foreign military vessels, as China does.

The US Navy characterizes "unlawful and sweeping maritime claims in the South China Sea" as a "serious threat to freedom of the sea."

The latest freedom-of-navigation operation "upheld the rights, freedoms and lawful uses of the sea recognized in international law by challenging unlawful restrictions on innocent passage imposed by China, Vietnam and Taiwan," the Navy's 7th Fleet said in a statement.

"China, Vietnam, and Taiwan require either permission or advance notification before a foreign military vessel engages in 'innocent passage' through the territorial sea," the Navy said. "By engaging in innocent passage without giving prior notification to or asking permission from any of the claimants, the United States challenged these unlawful restrictions."

The operation on Wednesday followed a similar one conducted less than two weeks ago by the destroyer USS John McCain. The warship carried out a freedom-of-navigation operation in the Paracel Islands, contested territory where China also has a growing military presence.

The Chinese Defense Ministry expressed frustration with the operation and said naval and air assets were deployed to drive away the US destroyer. China considers such operations to be violations of sovereignty.

As it has before, the Navy said in its latest statement that "the United States will fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows." Freedom-of-navigation operations have become fairly routine for the service despite pushback from China.

In addition to the freedom-of-navigation operations, the US Navy sent a warship through the Taiwan Strait and had two carrier strike groups operating together in the South China Sea in recent weeks, sparking complaints from Beijing.

The Trump administration dramatically stepped up competition with China, and there are expectations that this will continue under the new Biden administration.

President Joe Biden has described China as the "most serious competitor" and said the US is in "extreme competition" with China.

Biden recently announced the establishment of the "China Task Force" at the Department of Defense, which says the aim is "countering Chinese efforts" to "overturn the current rules-based structure" and use "all elements of national power to bend the nations to its will."

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has called China the "pacing threat" for the US, and a planned force posture review is expected to focus heavily on the US position in the Indo-Pacific region.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby recently stressed how seriously the secretary takes the "pacing challenge that China poses," telling reporters that it's important to take a "fresh look as we come in at what is in the Pacific."

"What is the footprint both fixed and rotational, and what's the health of our alliances and partnerships there? In other words, from our perspective are we doing enough?"

https://www.yahoo.com/news/another-us-navy-destroyer-challenged-135418420.html

>>12970703

Prayers to his family. Sad